nanny state

Steve Cooksey never thought he'd wind up in hot water with the North Carolina Board of Dietetics for merely running a blog documenting his personal successes in combating diabetes with a paleo diet, but now he's facing fines, loss of his domain name, and 120 days in jail. Why? Because he passed out business cards with his URL at a talk which advocated the diet that previously kept Cooksey dependent upon drugs—a talk given someone who had been licensed by the state.

Unpaid parking tickets? That’s a strip search. And no leash on your doggie? That’s a strip search too. It might sound weird, and a wee bit terrifying, but that’s the verdict out of the United States Supreme Court this week.

Law enforcement tracking of cellphones, once the province mainly of federal agents, has become a powerful and widely used surveillance tool for local police officials, with hundreds of departments, large and small, often using it aggressively with little or no court oversight, documents show.

In a rare instance of bipartisanship, President Barack Obama's reckless $3.6 trillion budget for next year was defeated 414-0 late last night on the House Floor.

Republicans said Democrats were afraid to vote for Obama's proposed tax increases and extra spending for energy and welfare. Democrats said Republicans had forced a vote on a version of Obama's budget that contained only its numbers, not the policies he would use to achieve them.

UK to consider bill to set minimum price for alcohol. The Guardian article doesn't even mention the possible unintended consequence of partiers opting for other drugs which may do more harm. They talk about it not being a way for grocery stores to increase profits -- pub owners and clubs however should benefit by the decreased cost difference.

Early on Thursday, lawmakers in New York approved a bill that will make the state the first to require DNA samples from almost all convicted criminals — and make its DNA database one of the largest in the nation.

A budget battle in New Jersey's capital city has some extremely unpleasant fallout, including a toilet paper shortage at police headquarters, fire stations, senior centers and municipal offices. Supplies have been dwindling down to almost nothing in the months since a spending fight broke out among the City Council in November over a $42,000 spending request for a year's supply of paper products, including toilet paper. “I’m embarrassed,” the Council president said.

When you think of an abusive relationship, what adjectives come to mind? Controlling? Violent? Humiliating? Jealous? Obsessive? Go figure, it doesn’t take a huge stretch of the imagination to apply these same adjectives to many of the world’s governments...

A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because a state employee told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious. The girl’s turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the agent who was inspecting all lunch boxes in her More at Four classroom that day.